New Delhi: In order to attract foreign funds, the Government on Tuesday allowed individual overseas investors also called Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs) to invest up to USD 1 billion in debts and corporate bond market.

The government also expanded the ambit of QFIs to include residents of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) member countries and those from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and European Commission (EC).

"A separate sub-limit of USD 1 billion has been created for QFI investment in corporate bonds and mutual fund debt schemes," a Finance Ministry official said.

As of now, foreign investors were allowed to invest USD 20 billion in the country's corporate bond market. With this the ceiling will increase to USD 21 billion.

"We are looking at 6-14 months to see the optimisation of QFI inflows," Thomas Mathew, Joint Secretary (Capital Market Division) in the ministry said.